Which one is better

[breiko]

Hello guys,

which of the 2 following iMacs do you think is better:

1) iMac 21.5 Mid 2014 i5 1.4GHz 8 GB 500 GB SATA

2) iMac 21.5 Late 2013 i5 2.7GHz 8 GB 1 TB SATA

 

[redheeler]

I'd avoid both as neither has an SSD, unless you plan to attach one externally and boot the OS from that. I guarantee you will notice the slowness running MacOS Sierra on a 5400 RPM drive.

That aside, definitely the Late 2013. The Mid 2014 is a budget model with low-power MacBook Air hardware in an iMac instead of a quad-core desktop CPU, but with a slow mechanical hard drive in place of the fast SSD found in MacBook Airs.

 

[breiko]

I'd avoid both as neither has an SSD, unless you plan to attach one externally and boot the OS from that. I guarantee you will notice the slowness running MacOS Sierra on a 5400 RPM drive.

That aside, definitely the Late 2013. The Mid 2014 is a budget model with low-power MacBook Air hardware in an iMac instead of a quad-core desktop CPU, but with a slow mechanical hard drive in place of the fast SSD found in MacBook Airs.

Thanks!! I actually have to keep one of the 2 and send the other one to Apple to trade up.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Likewise neither with slow as molasses 5400rpm hard drives.

As a last resort, keep the latter and run an SSD via USB3 as an external drive. Clone the operating system to it and select as the boot drive from System Preferences > Startup Disk.

 

[breiko]

Likewise neither with slow as molasses 5400rpm hard drives.

As a last resort, keep the latter and run an SSD via USB3 as an external drive. Clone thew operating system to it and select as the boot driuve from System Preferences > Startup Disk.

Thanks. I will consider this as an option.

 

[maflynn]

This link seems to indicate that the 2013 is a better model
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/...-imac-aluminum-late-2013-mid-2014-models.html

First, all of the 21.5-Inch "Late 2013" iMac models have Quad Core processors that are much faster than the Dual Core Intel Core i5 (I5-4260U) processor in the "Mid-2014" model.

Second, the 21.5-Inch "Late 2013" iMac models have much faster graphics processors -- either Iris Pro 5200 integrated graphics or GeForce GT 750M dedicated graphics -- whereas the "Mid-2014" model is equipped with older and slower Intel HD Graphics 5000.

Third, and perhaps most damning, it is needlessly inconvenient to upgrade the RAM in the 21.5-Inch "Late 2013" iMac models, but they can be upgraded to 16 GB with some effort. By contrast, 8 GB of RAM is soldered in place in the "Mid-2014" iMac model and it cannot be upgraded at all, whether at the time of purchase or later.

 

[tarsins]

Voted for 2 but personally I wouldn't consider a non-SSD drive these days.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I would keep the second one but I would replace the sata drive with an ssd before I used it.

 

[MandiMac]

2.